


A Royal Affair

by starlight_and_seafire



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Damerey Secret Santa Exchange, F/M, Fluff, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28342473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_and_seafire/pseuds/starlight_and_seafire
Summary: For years, Rey watched her brother, the Crown Prince Ben Solo, as he prepared to step into his future role as King of Alderaan, until the day she became more than just a spectator. In the wake of her brother’s abdication from his role in the monarchy, Rey becomes the country’s new Crown Princess.She’s certain that her love affair with a member of the royal guards would not be a fitting relationship for the future Queen.So she does what she must. She keeps it a secret.Until she shrugs off the lessons of the past and learns what it really means to be Queen.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 12
Kudos: 71





	A Royal Affair

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BatuuPrincess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BatuuPrincess/gifts).



> I had so much fun with your prompt, BatuuPrincess! And happy holidays to you and the rest of the Dam Fam!

Honestly, it’s a bit of a cliché really.

She knows this. She can admit it to herself.

But that doesn’t mean she wants to stop.

Instead, she smiles, nuzzling her face into her pillow as a strong, tanned arm grips her tighter, pulling her against a warm, familiar body.

No, she definitely doesn’t want to stop.

“Morning,” a sleep-raspy voice murmurs into her skin, causing a delightful shiver to course down her spine.

She slips around in his arms, her back missing his warmth immediately, even as she comes face to face with the handsome but bleary-eyed man next to her. Even fresh from sleep, his hair a tousled mess of dark curls, he’s still the most gorgeous man she’s ever seen.

“Morning,” she replies, leaning in to brush a kiss across his lips.

Yes, it really is a bit of a cliché. The princess and the bodyguard falling for each other, hiding their relationship not just from the eyes of the world, but from the royal family and the rest of the staff?

It would be quite the scandal, especially now that she’s not just a princess anymore. With her brother Ben shunning his status as heir apparent, she’s now the Crown Princess, future Queen of Alderaan.

She has responsibilities she never imagined before. She has duties and an image—not just her own, but her whole family, past and present—to uphold. A country to serve and alliances to forge and people to protect. 

Not to mention that Poe would lose his job. For years he’s been serving as a member of the royal guards, protecting the house and all its inhabitants from outside threats. Smart, talented, and good natured, he’s swiftly moved up the ranks, inspired by not just his own commitment to service but his parent’s legacy as protectors of the realm too. For now, he’s one of its top lieutenants, but it’s common knowledge that one day he would become the head of the guards.

He doesn’t serve on her detail exactly, but is instead assigned to a variety of positions, guarding the castle’s inhabitants and the family at all times, and at all manner of meetings and functions. But he is one of the favorites of the Queen and her husband, and used to be one of Ben’s as well.

And of course he’s her favorite too, but for an entirely different reason.

Never a morning person, Poe’s eyes begin brightening as he gazes at her while he starts coming to a little more. In the faint pre-dawn light, they both know they don’t have a lot of time together before he has to slip out of her room undetected, a skill honed to precision from long practice.

But she’s not willing to give him up. Not yet. Not as long as she can help it.

Poe brushes his hand along her cheek, pushing her sleep tousled hair back, eyes drinking her in. “Sleep well?”

She arches her back as she stretches, pressing herself along the length of his body. His very naked body.

She grins, satisfied, as she feels the rumble of sound in his chest. “Sure did” she replies, cheekily. “Someone wore me out last night.”

Poe strokes a hand up her bare spine until he can cup the nape of her neck in his hand. “Just doing my job, ma’am,” he replies, just as cheekily. “Gotta make sure the princess is well rested for a full day ahead.”

Then he presses his thumb against the soft skin of her jaw until her neck arches, and he brings his mouth down to press a few hot kisses along the column of her throat.

She sucks in a breath at the sensation. “If you keep that up, that full day is going to have to be postponed a bit.”

Poe doesn’t even lift his head from where he’s kissing down her neck to her collarbone. “Hmm, now there’s an idea. What’s on your schedule anyway?”

She rolls onto her back, tugging Poe with her, until his weight is pressing her into the mattress. She relishes in the warmth and solidness of his body above her. They might not have time right now for much else, not with the clock ticking down, but at least they can enjoy these last few moments together.

He seems to sense this, the sweetness and slowness of this moment, the two of them just enjoying each other for as long as they can, as he dots sweet kisses against her jaw, her cheek, her temple.

She closes her eyes in bliss, letting her hands roam his back and card into his hair. “Just the usual.” Her voice is barely above a whisper, unwilling to break this cocoon for anything. “Studies in the morning, then lunch and afternoon meetings with mom and some of her advisors.”

And then, just like that, their time is up. The bell rings in the clock tower outside. For them, it’s not so much a call to start the day, but a notice that their time together has come to an end.

They turn in unison, in sync like always, and glare towards the window, towards the clock tower and its bells.

And just like that, Poe leans over her to give her one more kiss and then he’s out of bed and sliding back into his clothes. She sits up, pulling the sheet around her bare body.

It’s their one hard rule. There is no escaping that bell. When it sounds, it’s time to go. It’s the only way to ensure their relationship remains undetected.

It’s the only way they can escape the ramifications, the consequences, if their relationship should ever be discovered.

Like always though, she can’t help but follow him to the door, wanting to prolong her time with him as much as possible. She might tell him it’s really to give her a chance to look out the door to make sure no one is around, a guest wandering the halls, or a staff member starting work earlier than usual.

But they both know better.

Still, she peeks her head out the door, glancing both ways to ensure the coast is clear for Poe to make his escape, before easing back in. She turns to him, taking a long moment to simply drink him in, to gaze deeply into the warm brown eyes of her love.

She leans in, brushing a gentle kiss against his lips. “Will I see you soon?”

Poe’s answering smile is soft and sweet. “Not soon enough.” One more kiss and then he’s sliding out the door, silent as a thief.

Her eyes follow him down the long hallway towards the stairs that lead back to the staff quarters. Once he’s out of sight, she softly eases the door shut before leaning against it with an aching sigh.

It’s little things like that, his soft smile, the way his eyes crinkle at the corners when he sees something that pleases him, when he sees her, the way he tells her in a thousand different ways that he wants to be near her, can’t get enough of her, like she can’t get enough of him, that makes her wish, makes her _hope_ , for something more. Something where they don’t have to hide all the time, where they can be together in public, somewhere outside the privacy of her bedroom or a secluded area nestled deep inside the castle where few tread.

But it can’t be.

No, she had learned that lesson long ago. Before she had become the Crown Princess. Back when her brother Ben was still the heir to the throne. The one who was supposed to wear the crown after their mother died.

She had been close to her brother growing up, before . . . before it had all gone so wrong. Before he left. She’d seen him as he prepared for his future duty. Watched and listened as he studied, as he talked to her about what makes someone a good king. What he hoped for as king.

When he grew older, she learned from him that love wasn’t a consideration when it comes to marriage. It was about duty. The advantageousness of the match. What he and the crown and country could gain from the relationship, what purpose it would serve.

Her and Poe, though?

That was love.

But it wouldn’t bring the crown any particular advantage. No powerful alliance, no power to gain, or wealth. No, the crown would gain nothing. Nothing except a good man, a kind and decent and honorable man, at her side as they served the country.

There was no real advantage in the match at all.

Just love.

She shoved herself off the doorway, dragging suddenly wooden legs back to her bed, where she fell back into the sheets and let herself dream of the moment she could see Poe again.

Letting herself delay the inevitable just a little bit longer.

* * *

“It’s a lovely day.”

Rey arches an eyebrow at her mother from where she sits on the couch with a book. Leia isn’t exactly known for her capacity for small talk. Her mother can be diplomatic, sure, she was trained for that after all. But Rey appreciates honesty and straightforwardness, and Leia certainly can deliver on that front. She’s always been rather in tune to what her daughter needed.

So Rey can’t help the feeling that she’s walking into a trap.

Still, she glances out the window where the late afternoon sunlight limns everything in gold. Whatever she might be walking into, she can still appreciate this view, these quiet moments alone with her mother after a long afternoon of meetings. “It is.” A simple answer for what she knows probably won’t be a simple conversation.

“I was thinking we could go out to the gardens.”

“That sounds like a lovely idea.” She sets her book down on the couch beside her, but her mother shows no inclination to move.

Rey blinks. The counter in her head ticks down, waiting for the inevitable, whatever it might be.

“It’s why I was headed to your room this morning. The gardens look simply amazing in the dawn light, and I know how much you would have enjoyed it. I thought we might have walked together a bit.”

Rey sits up straighter at that. The dawn. Headed to her room. “You did?”

Leia continues, her expression unreadable. “Seems you were otherwise engaged this morning. Or you had been, at least.”

She knows. Leia knows. Rey can practically see the ensuing aftermath, see all the ways this relationship will cause everything to go up in smoke and flames.

Leia just studies her face for a long moment before her brow furrows. “Did you think I would be angry? Or upset?”

Rey swallows around the lump in her throat. She knows what this sort of relationship means to this family, to the throne. Even before she had become the Crown Princess, she had learned this at her brother’s right hand. The spare, to what had been the inevitable heir.

She also knows Leia can read her like an open book. Leia can pretty much read anyone like an open book, an innate gift coupled with years in service to her country developing those skills to a pinpoint precision. But Rey . . . Rey doesn’t have that gift, not like Leia. And she’s never been able to read her mother like Leia can read her.

But Leia’s incredulous expression doesn’t turn angry. There’s no ire written in the set of her lips, no disappointment in the look of her eyes.

No, her mother’s expression turns from incredulous, to confused, before it softens out, something a little sad lighting her eyes from within.

It makes her heart ache, even as her mother walks over, lifting Rey’s legs up from where they rest on the couch and settling her petite body beside her, resting her daughter’s legs in her lap.

“Sweetheart, what is it? Why would you think that?”

Rey can’t stop it. There’s no hesitancy. The words tumble out of her mouth, her relationship with Poe, what Ben said, the lessons he taught her as he spoke about his own plans as he prepared to become king.

“Not that it would have mattered anyway.” She grimaces, pressing the heels of her hands against her aching eyes. “We’ve talked about it, me and Poe. What would have happened if we made our relationship public. He knows the risks. He knows the consequences, and he wouldn’t want me torn between him and the country. Wouldn’t want me to be hurt if there was anything at all he could do to prevent it. And it’s the same way for me. I know how much he loves his job, what it means to him. And if it came out, he would lose his position. Be forced out of the guards.” He’s like her—he wants to serve his country. And she couldn’t put him through the pain of losing all that he’s worked so hard for.

By the time she’s finished speaking, she feels wrung out, her chest heaving, as she struggles to catch her breath against the emotions roiling through her. Her mother says nothing for a long moment as she stares at Rey, a strong, steady hand resting on her ankle.

Then Leia rolls her eyes. “Sweetheart, you’re smarter than this.” But her lips tilt up in a soft smile, cutting some of the edge from her words. “But I guess we are all fools in love. And you always listened far too much to your brother.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let me set you straight. I know you love your brother. I love him too, as does your father.” But then she sighs, and suddenly it’s like Leia’s aged decades in the span of seconds, the tension of the last few months, of Ben leaving, hitting her all over again. “But there’s a reason he’s no longer the heir. He may have left himself, but . . .” Leia pauses, struggling for the words. Rey’s never seen her mother struggle for words, not like this. The pain still cuts so deep. “But his views on power, what he felt he was entitled to, it’s not what we stand for. He may have chosen to leave himself, but it was for the best. I don’t think we could have allowed him to take the throne if he remained.”

Rey gapes, though another part of her, hidden deep inside, knows it’s true. There’s always been a dark side to him, a part of him that valued power over everything else. A part of her always knew this, but she hoped . . .

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying whatever he’s said to you, whatever he tried to teach you or what you think you learned from him, it’s all a crock of shit.”

Rey’s eyebrows jump up her forehead. She can count the number of times she’s heard her mother curse on one hand. And never in a situation quite like this.

But her mother continues, her voice warm but powerful, the kind that makes you sit up and pay attention as she talked. “You don’t need to marry for some strategic alliance. You don’t need to marry to gain this country more power. Believe me, we have more than enough. What a queen or king needs to do is serve their country to the best of their ability, to honor and respect and protect its citizens, to promote peace and freedom. Now, Ben wanted power. He thought he was entitled to it, and he would have done whatever he could to obtain it. There are many different ways to serve this country. You don’t need to rely on what Ben said.”

Rey feels something warm fill the hollow place in her chest as Leia reaches out, cupping her cheek in her hand. “Now the question is: how will you serve this country? What will you stand for? Or, as seems to be more pertinent to your situation, who will you stand with?”

* * *

Rey walks through the hallways on heavy legs, not noticing the people she passes, or the lush carpet beneath her feet, or the way the late afternoon sunlight shines in through the windows.

The conversation with Leia was . . . intense. Life altering in some ways. What she had learned about Ben, what she had learned about Leia and her family, even what she had learned about herself. She stops at a window just down the hall from her room, gazing outside at the garden and the way the sun fills the air with a warm, golden glow.

She lets out a long breath as her head fills with thoughts of Poe. She thinks of those moments when he calls her his sunshine, the way his arms wrap around her holding her close to his chest, the way the sun catches on his dark hair, warming the strands to a dark caramel color even as she pretends she doesn’t notice it when they’re out in public.

But she does.

And she can notice now.

If he wants her to.

She startles, suddenly realizing that it’s possible now. They can be together now if he wants that too. Cause she sure as hell wants that.

Rey, who had been stumbling along aimlessly just moments ago, feels nothing now but determined purpose. She whirls on her heel, hurrying back in the opposite direction. As she strides down the hall, she glances up at the grand clock she passes and calculates the time. His shift today must have just ended, and if she knows him well enough then he should be on his evening walk after visiting the kennels, or maybe the stables.

Taking the stairs at a trot just on the proper side of decorum and—who the hell cares about decorum now, not with all that waits before her—she steps up her pace until she’s practically running through the palace.

As if this would even number in the top hundred most scandalous stories that ever came from a member of this family.

There’s nothing that can get in her way now.

* * *

Honestly, it’s a bit of a cliché really.

She knows this. She can admit it to herself.

But as she dashes down the long hallways, she doesn’t exactly care.

And she knows for certain she doesn’t want to stop.

She takes a corner so quickly her shoulder bumps off the wall, and she curses the fact she’s not wearing her boots as her feet eat up the ground between her and Poe.

But at least she’s wearing flats, which means she can get to him quicker than the alternative.

She earns a few curious stares as she runs by the guards at the doorway, shrugging off their concern with the wave of her hand, and then she’s sprinting down a familiar path, and she hopes and hopes and hopes and—

There he is, that familiar figure strolling down the tree-lined path, hands in his pockets as he gazes at something in the branches.

Her heart clenches at how beautiful a sight it is, the way he looks in the dappled sunlight. Suddenly, the butterflies take flight, swarming in her stomach.

But he must hear something, and that gaze turns away from the trees and the sky, and then he’s looking at her, a befuddled expression on his face.

“Rey?”

She smiles back at him. “Poe.”

He takes a few long strides towards her, his eyes looking around, always mindful, always assessing for any threat to her safety. “Is there something wrong?”

“No. No, everything is great.” And it is—at least she hopes it is, but there’s a decision he needs to make first. “I need to talk to you.”

His brow scrunches together, a line forming between his eyes as he gazes at her, concerned. “What is it?”

She glances around, and while she spies no one, she still takes his hand, tugging him further into the privacy of the trees. “I had a talk with my mother. She knows.”

“Knows?” She sees the moment he realizes just what she means, and his face falls, something like sorrow filling his eyes. “About us?” At her nod of confirmation, he simply asks “How?”

“She saw you leaving my room this morning.”

“We were so careful.” He scrubs a hand over his face, throat bobbing as he swallows hard. “I’m so sorry, Rey. I know how much you were worried if—if we were ever found out. About what it could mean for you and your family.” He sighs as he takes a step backward, his face tilting toward the sky, as if . . . as if it were too painful to look at her right now. “I guess she wants you to end this, huh?”

“No.”

It’s one simple word, but his eyes slam back into hers with a force she’s never felt before. It’s like the world tilts on its axis, like the very foundation beneath her has crumbled to ash, leaving space for something new and wonderful to grow.

“No,” she repeats, as he stares at her. “She said I had a choice.” She takes a step towards him. “And you have one too.”

Leia might have been talking about her and Ben then, but her mother is an extraordinarily clever woman. She would have remembered what Rey had mentioned just moments before.

 _There are many different ways to serve this country_ , her mother had said.

Maybe she was talking about Poe too. Helping to ease Rey over that last obstacle, the worry that if their relationship became public, it would hurt Poe.

Poe takes a step towards her, only the faintest sliver of daylight between the two of them now. There’s hope in his eyes, as warm and golden as the sunlight filtering through the air, but there’s desire too.

And love.

“What’s my choice?”

“You can’t be a member of the royal guard if . . . if you’re in a relationship with me. You’d have to choose. I know how much it means to you, and I wouldn’t ask, except—"

She falls silent as Poe’s hand comes up, fingers stroking lightly against her jaw.

“I choose you,” he says, eyes gazing into hers. “It’s not even a choice. It’s always been you.”

“I know it’s really unfair to ask it of you, when I know how important your job is to you. And it’s a lot to shoulder. There’s a lot of burden, a lot of responsibility, and for all it seems, there’s not much reward when your life is spent under a microscope.”

He laughs softly, the sound more fond than anything else. “Rey,” he says as she falls silent under the intensity of his gaze. “I can find other ways to serve this kingdom. But I choose you.”

Her mother was right. And maybe she had known much more than she was letting on when they were speaking earlier. Now, her mother’s other words echo in her ears. _Who will you stand with?_

She chooses Poe. She’d always choose him. And if the day ever comes where the shadow of darkness looms on the horizon, there’s no one else she’d rather stand to face it with.

There’s nothing standing in her way now. Not her country, not the warnings of her brother, not even herself.

She bridges that last bit of space between the two of them as she presses herself to him, sinking her hands into his hair as she pulls his mouth to hers. The air is stolen from her lungs, she feels like she’s floating on air, as Poe returns her kiss, heady and intense, and she’s never felt more alive. She’s never felt more powerful.

As they pull away, just far enough to gasp in lungfuls of air before pressing back in, no worry about being seen, being _caught_ , no longer fearing that their love could be discovered, she manages to gasp out four words before Poe tugs her close again to steal the breath from her lungs once more.

“I choose you too.”


End file.
